[ppml] Policy Proposal: 2007-12 IPv4 Countdown Policy Proposal

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> "The RIR's, in order to assure the orderly
> shutdown of IPv4 allocations must announce a termination date for
> IPv4 by January 1st, 2008.  The termination date will be reviewed
> every 6 months thereafter if conditions warrant"

It seems you don't want a policy at all, just some better publicity. It
is possible to suggest non-policy ideas to ARIN simply by filling out
this form:
https://app.arin.net/suggestion/

> The goal should be that by at least a year from announcement date of
> this drop-dead date, that most CEO's of large organizations should
> have asked their network people "so what are we going to do 
> about this 
> end of TCP/IP thing I just read about?"

Drop-dead date comes from the news industry and it refers to the very
real deadline when the presses *MUST* begin to roll in order to have X
number of printed copies bundled and ready for pickup by the delivery
drivers who are sitting in the alley behind the press building waiting
for them. There is no give in the printing process. It can slow down to
deal with paper defects (that plastic you threw in with the recycled
paper) or inkflow problems but it cannot speed up. The end of IPv4 is
very, VERY, *V*E*R*Y* unlike the drop-dead copy submission date.

In fact, the end of IPv4 will be a long drawn out process with
uncertainties right to the very end. In some areas, addresses will
suddenly be used up while other areas will have a supply for longer than
expected. There will be surprise INCREASES in supply and people fiddling
to find ways to make use of Class E addresses despite their limitations.

> This is an extreme simplification that is essentically incorrect.  If
> relamation were to exceed everyone's estimates then it might push the
> runout date so far in advance that it would become theoretical. 

So you agree that a drop-dead date is a ludicrous concept. Good.

> We do not
> have the moral right to dictate policy to our children for a
> community problem that will arise after we are dead of old age.

That's why ARIN operates according to the laws of the United States of
America and the Commonwealth of Deleware. ARIN simply cannot make a
policy which removes the power of the future Board of Trustees to change
it. Therefore we cannot dictate any policy at all. We merely come to
agreement on current policy until the next biannual ARIN meeting, when
it could get changed or revoked entirely.

--Michael Dillon